Irin Carmon reviews Paid For, by Rachel Moran.

Moran started selling herself on the streets of Dublin when she was fifteen.

Moran’s seven years in the sex trade, the main subject of her book, convinced her it is never compatible with consent and always tantamount to abuse. “The summation of my experience of prostitution was simply this: I lost myself,” she writes. She warns that “Paid For”  “will not read in the style of a traditional memoir,” but its arc is familiar: troubled parents, state custody and homelessness, an older boyfriend who suggested she walk the streets, hitting rock bottom, getting out with a new purpose.

So, clearly, she’s not of the “sex work is empowering” school.

“Paid For”